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Sunday, April 23, 2017

Vacuum Cleaner

This is the vacuum cleaner we bought for an excellent price from a couple who were leaving Costa Rica - about three or four years ago, I believe.

 

I can't remember the exact price we paid for this vacuum and also a large size slow cooker .... maybe around $50 USD. This is the way to buy stuff in Costa Rica ... people come and go all the time here and when they leave, they want to get rid of their things and prices are very good.

So this Electrolux has faithfully worked for us over the last few years .... sucking up cat hair, bugs, volcanic ash and more. But last week, it lost it's sucking power and it was time to take it to the appliance hospital.

One thing I have learned about living in a Spanish speaking country, when my Spanish is so so, is to Google translate what I want and write it out on a card or, in this case, on masking tape. In this photo, I have my name, telephone number and the problem: "sin succion", no suction. We went to Electro Atenas, across from the park and very close to the Santa Clara bakery. They had repaired our blown out TV a couple of years ago for a most reasonable price. When I dropped the vacuum off with them, they asked for a 5,000 colone deposit (about $10 USD).

The "29173" is their order number. I received a phone call the next day saying (I think) that the vacuum was ready to be picked up. We went there the day after, picked up the vacuum, and there were no extra charges beyond the 5,000 colone deposit. We went home, plugged in the vacuum and .... it worked! 

Today I cleaned our house from top to bottom, volcano ash and all.


7 comments:

Catalyst said...

When we came back to Estados Unidos from Mexico we got robbed on our sale. Made the mistake of just opening the doors and hundreds of people flooded the place all at once. Our maid saw a couple of young boys pocketing some jewelry. Ticked me off, even if it was "costume" stuff. But you live and learn, right?

Diana Miskell said...

Wow, what an experience ... Yes, live and learn.

Unknown said...

That is a great story, I love the part where you wrote the translation on a piece of masking tape. Sounds like a really nice place to live. I hope to visit the country one day but probably will have to wait until at least next year. Good to read you are doing well. Good luck to you and that vacuum cleaner of yours in the future!

Garry said...

Not heard of an appliance hosiptal before but interesting story, thanks for sharing it.

Diana Miskell said...

Thanks!

Diana Miskell said...

Ticos can fix just about anything!

Alicia Healy said...

Interesting post, but I have not heard of this brand of vacuum cleaner